


Meditation on Tea and Zhu Li

by DoubleL27



Series: Zhurrick Week [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Enemy at the Gates - Freeform, Episode Tag, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 07:09:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3348161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoubleL27/pseuds/DoubleL27
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Varrick is particular about his tea, among other things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meditation on Tea and Zhu Li

Varrick has always been very particular about his tea. The scent and the delicacy of the leaves and the way the steam curls out of the pot. Tea is a fickle creature, even if it seems straightforward to less cultured individuals. That they cannot sense the nuance of a two minute steeped green tea and a three minute steeped green tea or the vast difference between a hearty black and a fragile white is incomprehensible. Anyone who doesn’t notice the pale color of grass in a good green or the buttery yellow of a white must be blind.

Tea has always been his morning wake up, his afternoon thinking and hips evening relaxation. There is little that a good tea can’t solve. Varrick knows. He’s tried them all. The tea experiments happened early in his time with Zhu Li and her expert hand made the virtues of the varieties apparent.

Zhu Li is like tea. Few notice her variations and Varrick cannot help but know them by heart. How could anyone miss the slight raise of an eyebrow or the way the edge of her lip curves down when she is displeased? Not hear the excitement that creeps into her dry voice at the start of discovery. Not be inspired by light that blooms in her eyes when one of their plans goes off without too many hitches.

Carefully steeped, his Zhu Li is a revelation.

Varrick’s ministrations have not always been as delicate as his best tea. Zhu Li had never seemed to truly mind. The crackle of over dried leaves when he had not remembered to be gentle came to mind or the wilting from oversteeping.

He had never expected this though. One signal was all she had needed to abandon the tea she had carefully prepared and leap out of the hatch. She had so readily taken his hands to escape Kuvira’s path to mass destruction. There was no hesitation or questions. No signal that things had gone awry in the process of brewing their escape.

The usual taste of Zhu Li was comforting, bright and floral, spicy notes came when she was playful and tinged with bitterness when she was frustrated or sarcastic.

When she defected to Kuvira there was a flood of bitterness in his mouth that he had never associated with Zhu Li. “The only mistake I made was being loyal to the wrong person.” She was an over-steeped tea and he had never noticed how long he had left her leaves in boiling water. _“Guards, do the thing!”_ Devastation had swamped him. A ruined cup of tea was a travesty that could last him hours.

A ruined Zhu Li was…

Varrick wasn’t sure what it was, but it was unlike anything he had known.


End file.
